The United States and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced a second round of random lottery selection for temporary work visas, known as H-1B visas, for the fiscal year 2024.
USCIS in March conducted an initial random selection on correctly submitted electronic registration for the fiscal year 2024, taking into account beneficiaries eligible for the advanced degree exemption, VisaGuide.World reports.
The same source noted that only petitioners with selected registrations for FY 2024 are able to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The government agency announced that the initial filing period for those with selected registrations for the fiscal year 2024 was from April 1, 2023, until June 30, 2023.
“We recently determined that we would need to select additional registrations to reach the FY 2024 numerical allocations. Soon, we will select additional registrations from previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process,” the statement from the USCIS reads.
The agency noted that all those who have completed this second selection process will be notified.
“We will announce once we have completed this second selection process and have notified all prospective petitioners with selected registrations from this round of selection that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration,” the agency noted.
The H-1B visa allows US employers who cannot find workers in the US to hire qualified workers for specialty jobs engaged in fields such as IT specialists, architecture, professors, and doctors, among others.
According to the TOI report, citing immigration experts, among the reasons for a second round of lottery, could be the crackdown on fraudulent practices, including the filing of multiple H-1B cap registrations for the same beneficiary by American sponsoring entities who were engaged in working in conduit with each other in order to improve the change of lottery-win for such an individual.
Previously, an Indian-descent Democratic lawmaker, Raja Krishnamoorthi, introduced new legislation proposing to increase the annual intake of international workers on H-1B visas in order to attract a larger number of workers in the US.
The bill, among others, sought to increase the annual H-1B visas from 65,000 to 130,000.
According to Krishnamoorthi, the expansion of the H-1B program would help companies in America to find workers for direly needed positions.
The agency previously announced that it received 7,58,994 eligible registrations for the H-1B cap season for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024. Of the total, USCIS selected 1,10,791 registrations to meet the annual quota of 85,000.